Photo: Gilles Ayotte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · Wikimedia Commons

Missouri River Willow

Salix eriocephala

Also called heartleaf willow, Missouri willow, stiff willow, Salix rigida, Salix missouriensis.

A fast native willow of stream banks and wet meadows whose silky catkins open among the first flowers of spring, feeding emerging bees.

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Saplings ship bare-root or in a pot, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

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Tolerates wet soilHoney treeWildlife value

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 6–20 ft
USDA zones: 3–9
Growth rate: Fast
Flowers: April to June
Fruit: Capsules, May to July
First crop: 2 to 10 years (first flowers)
Mature spread: 15 ft
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats, old fields and edges
Native range: 34 states and the District of Columbia, north to North Dakota, south to Florida and west to Colorado
List all 35
Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia
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Missouri River willow is a narrow shrub or small tree of stream banks, river shores and wet meadows across the East and the northern Plains. Its thick, toothed leaves are often rounded or heart-shaped at the base, which gives it its other name, heartleaf willow. It is a host of the mourning cloak, one of the first butterflies on the wing in spring. Mass it at a pond edge, along a streambank or in a wet, sunny swale, where it can spread into a thicket.

Size, growth and what to expect

Missouri River willow grows fast, nearly three feet a year in our growth estimator. It makes a narrow shrub or small tree of 6 to 20 feet, on several stems from a compact base, with dark gray, scaly bark.

Silky catkins open from April into June, the males just before the leaves and the females as they unfold. It is one of the earliest willows to bloom, and emerging bees feed on it. The beaked capsules split from May into July to release cottony seed. The leaves are glossy above and waxy white beneath, with large, leafy stipules at their stalks.

It grows wild from Newfoundland and Quebec west to Manitoba and the Dakotas, and south to Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia and northern Florida. Its home is gravelly or rocky stream banks, river shores, floodplains, marshes and wet meadows. Florida lists it as endangered.

How to grow Missouri River Willow

Missouri River willow wants full sun, since it takes little shade. Give it ground that stays moist or wet, such as a stream bank, a pond edge or a low meadow, and it takes sandy or gravelly soil. It stands flooding well, but it takes little drought. Plant it 8 feet from a wall and set plants 10 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line and put the wet native soil back in. Its seed lives only a few days, so sow it fresh, the day the capsules split. Scatter it on wet, bare soil in sun without covering it, and keep the bed moist. Stem cuttings root about as easily as those of any plant.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. Keep taller trees from shading it, since it fades without sun.

Plants are male or female, and bees carry pollen from the male catkins to the female ones. Small insects often raise galls on the leaves. It is short-lived and prone to insect, disease and wind damage.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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